Woman's Hour

Self-employed women are receiving less government support during coronavirus if they’ve taken maternity leave between April 2016 and March 2019 – because maternity pay isn’t taken into account when calculating payments under the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. The group Pregnant Then Screwed is now threatening the chancellor with indirect sex discrimination. It’s estimated between 75,000 an...

Some reports suggest the government won’t now go ahead with the reform of the Gender Recognition Act. If true, this means that people won’t be able to self-declare their gender. What will this mean for the wider debate? Jane speaks to Helen Belcher, co-founder of Trans Media Watch and chair of the national LGBT charity Consortium, and Joan Smith, Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Wom...

As two black British women writers – Bernadine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge - top the UK fiction and non-fiction book charts for the first time, Jane asks bestselling author of Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams and Sharmaine Lovegrove founder of Dialogue Books, what publishing houses should be doing to make the trend last. The hashtag #publishingpaidme has shown that in many cases globally black wom...

The scientist Marie Skłodowska Curie is recognised throughout the world but how much do you really know about her and her ground breaking Nobel prize winning discoveries? The Oscar nominated star of Gone Girl on playing the Nobel prize winning scientist in the film Radioactive. The debt advice charity, Step Change, warned that British households are expected to rack up debts worth a combined £6bn...

Candice Brathwaite set up the group called Make Motherhood Diverse in order to set right a wrong. When pregnant, she didn't recognise anything in books and online that she could relate to. So she set up the group to reflect a broader spectrum of motherhood. She tells us about her debut book I Am Not Your Baby Mother, a guide to life as a Black British mum. Protests are expected this weekend across...

A picture is slowly emerging of what has happened to women’s personal finances since the Covid 19 pandemic began. The debt advice charity, Step Change, warned that British households are expected to rack up debts worth a combined £6bn because of the health emergency as they fell behind with their bills. And it looks like this will disproportionately impact on women. Jenni talks to Jude Kelly, Foun...

Fear of becoming homeless is one of the factors that stops women leaving an abusive relationship. That’s according to the charity Women’s Aid which carried out research before covid, and collected evidence of women sofa-surfing, staying with friends or having difficulty getting a place in a refuge if they did leave. But now we're in lockdown have things got better or worse? In our latest Corona Di...

We look at the first UK study into the physical, emotional and financial abuse of some grandparents who are looking after their grandchildren as part of kinship care arrangements. Jane talks to the author of the report Dr Amanda Holt, a Reader in Criminology at the University of Roehampton and to Lucy Peake, the CEO of the kinship care charity Grandparents Plus. The scientist Marie Curie is recogn...

Harriet Harman MP, raises concerns about the current treatment of mothers in prison during Covid-19 and the impact on their children and family life.. Fertility clinics were told last month that they could reopen as long as social distancing measures were in place. Being without access to fertility treatment has left thousands of couples – as well as single women – worried that they might run out...

The US has been convulsed by nationwide protests over the death of an African-American man in police custody. George Floyd, 46, died after being arrested outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But what are black parents here saying to their youngsters about some of the images coming from America and about the protests about racism in the UK? We hear from parents Teiko Dornor, Ama Ocansey and Ie...

Carol Cooper was awarded Nursing’s Diversity and Inclusion Champion of the Year award in 2019, she is a Regional NHS Head of equality, diversity and human rights and is the a Royal College of Nursing expert lead for BME Suicide Awareness, Equality, Diversity and Human Rights. She is also a Registered Nurse. She talks to Jenni Murray about race issues in the nursing profession and the way it's bein...

As we move to ease lockdown restrictions in this country, and look ahead to the “new normal”, there are a large number of people who are still very much in lockdown. Many people with medical conditions that make them “extremely clinically vulnerable” to COVID-19 are “shielding” for a minimum of 12 weeks. Shielding means staying in your home and not leaving for any reason, not even for exercise or...

While the world has gone into lockdown and economies have crashed, one type of business has been seeing double-digit growth – direct selling. Independent consultants for big names such as Body Shop at Home, Forever Living, Avon, Usborne Books at Home and Arbonne have been reporting huge increases in sales and recruitment in response to regular shops closing their doors. But while proponents of ‘mu...

The US has been convulsed by nationwide protests over the death of an African-American man in police custody. George Floyd, 46, died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But what are black parents here saying to their youngsters about some of the images coming from America, such as the arrest footage itself, then the violent demonstrations and the angry confront...

More from our series that celebrates the women who get things done – the Troupers. They're very bad at blowing their own trumpets so we're doing it for them. Today we hear from Annie Taylor and Wendy Robinson the founders of the Profanity Embroidery Group in Whitstable. After building up credit card debt of £25,000 Clare Seal decided she had to do something drastic to deal with it. She set up an I...

An editorial in the British Medical Journal reported that one in five harmful and dependent drinkers got the help they needed, and now the proportion will be lower. How do you cope with an alcohol problem under lockdown? We hear the experience of a listener, the journalist Catherine Renton who has been sober for over 3 years, and from Julia Sinclair, professor of Addiction Psychiatry, University o...

It’s fifty years since the Equal Pay Act became law, though employers were given a couple of years to prepare for the change to take effect. The legislation followed the strike of a group of women machinists at the Ford factory in Dagenham who wanted to be paid just as a man would for doing skilled work. It set out that an individual can claim equal pay for work of equal value. However, it’s prove...

Last week an editorial in the BMJ reported that before Covid-19 only one in five harmful and dependent drinkers got the help they needed, and now the proportion will be lower. There is concern for those struggling with dependence and those on the brink of dependence. How do you cope with an alcohol problem under lockdown? And what support is out there? We hear the experience of a listener, the jou...

The UK cleaning sector is worth almost £50bn a year to the country’s economy. It employs more than 900,000 people, mostly women. Right now, many are vulnerable. Some feel they won't be able to stop working if they fall ill or have to self- isolate because they can't afford it. Jenni speaks to Katy, a cleaner. Also Maria Gonzalez who's an employment barrister and Janet Macleod who's a Unite represe...

TROOPERS is a new series of ours starting today. It's about the women in our communities who get things done, and many of them are volunteers. We begin with Margaret Johnson who works as a volunteer at Chester Storyhouse which is a cinema, theatre and library. She runs the Chatter and Natter group. We've got more on the Dominic Cummings situation and his trip to Durham. Katy Balls from the Spectat...

We hear from you about what it’s like to be pregnant, give birth and look after a new baby in the Covid-19 lockdown. Antenatal, labour and post-natal care has had to transform in the last two months, in order to combat the virus. Pregnant women are considered a vulnerable group to Covid and are recommended to self-isolate for their third trimester. Routine face-to-face appointments have been reduc...

The soprano Laura Wright tells us about her new single released with The Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London to mark Mental Health Awareness week. Baroness Doreen Lawrence discusses why the Labour Party are conducting its own enquiry into why people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are more than four times more likely to die as a result of Covid-19 than their white count...

The soprano Laura Wright first came to prominence when she won the BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year in 2005 aged just 15. A lover of sport, she’s well known for her performances at huge sporting events from the FA Cup Final, British Grand Prix, Invictus Games and being England Rugby team’s first ever official anthem singer. She tells Jenni how during lockdown she has been using her voice by...

Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Labour’s race relations adviser. What will be the long term impact of Covid-19 on women in the workforce? Plus as just over 400 prisoners and more than 500 prison staff in England and Wales have tested positive for the virus, how's the pandemic affected the way prison and probation officers carry out their work. We hear from Anita, who’s a prison officer at a male young o...

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, we look at why it’s important to discuss mental health and trauma with young people. The Mental Health Foundation reports that 70% of children and young people who experience a mental health problem have not had appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age. Why does this matter and what impact can it have on a child’s progression and adulthood? Ebi...